Journal

Another highlight of our recent expedition to film the wrecks of Fathom Five National Marine Park was the James C. King, a schooner built in East Saginaw, Michigan, in 1867, and wrecked in 1901 in the same storm that wrecked the Wetmore - in fact, she was one of two ships under tow by the Wetmore, all three of the vessels carrying cargoes of timber. Unlike the Wetmore, which sank in shallow water, the King slid down a steep rocky slope with her bow coming to rest in 27 metres, at the beginning of the barren silted plain that characterises much of the deep-water lakebed in this area. On the day of our dive the upper part of the site was swept by a strong current that caused a silt fallout down the slope, reducing the visibility, and my focus during our limited bottom time was on being flimed by my brother - so I only took a few photos myself. The first picture shows us pulling our way along the line against the current from the boat to the buoy before beginning our descent. The second and third pictures show the steep slope of the site, and the others show Alan filming on the deeper reaches of the wreck and then at our 6 metre decompression stop.